The Driving for Better Business campaign, which is managed by RoadSafe, is one of the influential UK-based supporters of the United Nations-backed initiative and attended the launch event in the UK.

The aim of the 2011-2020 Decade of Action for Road Safety is to save five million lives and prevent 50 million injuries.

The campaign has calculated that if 50% of businesses that currently manage people who drive at work implemented initiatives similar to those of the firms who have been chosen as RoadSafe "business champions" around five million lives globally would be saved.

Adrian Walsh, director of the campaign and of RoadSafe, said: 'With up to 30% of all road crashes estimated to be work-related it means that worldwide if other organisations adopted the safety focus of our ‘business champions then millions of lives would be saved over the decade and the lives of millions of other people would not be blighted by injuries caused in road crashes.'

He added: 'We are aware that many organisations across the public, private and voluntary sectors have yet to follow the lead of our "business champion". We are therefore using the launch of the Decade of Action for Road Safety as a further platform to encourage employers to understand the benefits of promoting road risk management in the work place.'